It is a matter that embraces the Minister of Health, revealed just hours after her interim appointment. This Friday, December 22, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo confirmed that she was targeted by an investigation linked to her profession as a pharmacist, after an article in Mediapart indicating that she had received gifts worth 20,000 euros from Urgo laboratories.
“As part of my role as pharmacist, an investigation is underway. Allow me to reserve the discussions that I should have with the competent authorities,” declared Agnès Firmin Le Bodo to France Bleu Normandie, without wanting to say more about the subject.
An open investigation
The previous evening, the public prosecutor of Le Havre Bruno Dieudonné had confirmed to AFP that an investigation had been opened “by the head of unauthorized perception by a healthcare professional of benefits provided by a person producing or marketing healthcare productsas an extension of the case which resulted in the conviction of Urgo laboratories in January 2023 by the Dijon criminal court”, without giving the identity of the people involved.
This statement followed an article in the online newspaper Mediapart indicating that Agnès Firmin Le Bodo had received “without declaring them” gifts with an estimated total value of 20,000 euros, from 2015 to 2020, from the Urgo group.
Champagne, bottles of wine
Pharmacist by profession, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, who runs a pharmacy in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), “is suspected of having had luxury products delivered to her on 21 occasions, from 2015 to 2020 – watches, bottles of wine and magnums of champagne, boxes for weekends, etc. – for a total amount estimated at 20,000 euros, from Urgo laboratories,” detailed Mediapart. “Urgo thus sought to retain pharmacists and increase their commercial margins,” continues the media.
In January 2023, Urgo laboratories were fined 1,125,000 euros, including 625,000 suspended, for offering gifts to pharmacists, in return for giving up commercial discounts, a practice that is strictly prohibited.
Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, until then deputy minister responsible for territorial organization and health professions, was named interim Minister of Health on Wednesday after the resignation of Aurélien Rousseau for disagreement on the immigration law.